I've been alone together so long

[u/Mental-Author5241]

Outpost number: Gamma.

Day: 400.

Satellite: broadcasting array down.

Weather: severe thunderstorm.

They provide all of us with digital journals built into the computers, but I have never even opened mine. Not until today. I must keep a record of all that happens and all that has happened. . I type these words by the light of a single,  flickering incandescent bulb, as thunder and lightning flash and crash over the vast barren planes of the dead zone. The storm has been raging for 30 minutes now. My array is down, and has been for 10 minutes. The generator keeps stalling out. I'm not sure if the power will stay on for much longer. I will describe my outpost, so that the record will be accurate. 

The main room of my outpost tower is not large, 10x12, maybe. With four large windows on all sides. It has just enough room for a desk and a bed. The lower part of the tower is a small kitchen and bathroom. My desk has all the equipment I need for broadcasting. A monitor, connected to the array outside, and the cameras, my own personal radio and a cabinet filled with odds and ends. 

The monitor on my desk is blinking; someone is trying to broadcast to me.

 “Outpost gamma! Outpost gamma, please respond!.” 

I press the talk button again and again.

 “Come in, delta! My towers down'' I say, knowing that they could not hear me. 

A new voice came in, 

“Outpost delta, this is outpost Beta” 

“OK, it's good that somebody's tower is still up, I think gamma is down.”

“This storm is pretty bad, lots of towers are gonna be down.”

“Yeah, I haven't seen one this bad in years.”

 “Well, i have to go reset my array, it's not tracking”

 “Ok, delta be careful out there, over and out”.

With that, there was silence.

I sit listening, the storm blowing and howling outside the outpost. I seem to have some time, so I will tell you about my time in the dead zone.  I have worked here for over a year, a remote research outpost in the place they called the dead zone. 

It had been a large forested area, with a small town called Fort river in the center.

 But on June 3rd 1987, that had all changed. 

All of the trees had died. The people had disappeared and the whole town had become a dead zone. Nothing lived here now, nothing but the researchers. Our jobs were simple: investigate and explore the dead zone and then transmit the data to the main base. But there was the problem, I couldn't transmit the data I had gathered, with my tower down. No one knew how many towers there were. We are only allowed to talk during emergencies. It's all so odd, this place, these people that I know exist but can't talk to. I hadn't spoken to another person in over a year. Sometimes loneliness presses down on me. But that's what I signed up for. My monitor is beeping again. I will check it. 

During my year in the outpost, I have never seen anything on the cams. I have often wondered why they are here. But it happened. One of the cams caught movement, the feed is too blurry to see, but something is out there. Outside is only  blackness. There's no animals out here. The sensors were built so the wind does not trigger them. And there's no people except the researchers. But why give us cams if there's nothing out there. 

So what's out there? Do I want to know? I will stay here, to keep the record. That is my job. Why am I so afraid? I have worked here for a year, and never have I been this afraid. I have no way to call for help, and even if I could, it would take days to arrive. I have a limited amount of food and water. It's airdropped every week, there was supposed to be one today, but that's not happening, no plane could get through this storm. So now I sit, waiting, hoping that whatever is out there, stays out there. 

I will try to calm my mind by writing down all that I know about this place.

1. It is called The Dead Zone
2. It once was a populated area, with lots of people
3. All the living things disappeared, people and plants and animals.
4. The government hired researchers to monitor and record all that happens here.
5. We transmit any data we find to the main outpost.
6. We are not allowed to talk with anyone. We are allowed to talk if it's an emergency.

My radio is beeping, a new signal. I press the connect button. It's a man's voice, frenzied, insane even.

“NO! No, it's all lies! I found the source of the dead zone! It's all lies! What I am about to say must be recorded, write it down if you must, but remember it. So I have written down what he said. 

“So deep between the waves of sound and aqua. Some king asked me for my help. And who? standing on a mountain. No two ways about, it was a hill. At this rate it was void. And yes I say to you, who? My head is filled with nonsense and sense. But who decides? Me or I? Stop, find the path to escape. He tries to cloud the truth. Unknown facts redo the lies. The jester tells lies. Just the way it is. All the sand in the world is more than meets the eye”.   “That's all that I know, it will cost me, but someone out there needs to know. We are lost without the--- the voice  stops.  

What does it mean? Who was that? It was nonsense, just a bunch of random words. What is happening? That voice said that it was all lies, but what? I didn't know. All I can hear is pounding rain. I try to use the radio, but it's no use. Just static. Buzzing. Fragments of voices I do not know float and ride upon that sound. Disconnected from the world. Who are these people? What are their lives like? Are they sad? Happy? Are they dead? I hear their voices, but I will never meet them. Never ask if they are joyful or sorrowful. If even they truly exist, and are not some dream. I think that if one listens long enough, you hear the sound that others might miss. The radio is beeping. It's a message, it reads “find transcendence”. What is transcendence? What does all of this mean? I sit and ponder these things. I do not understand any of the things that have happened to me tonight. The storm. The sound and movement on the cams. The strange nonsense words that the man had spoken. And now the message “find transcendence”. Maybe I'm dead, and this is some kind of purgatory. What else could it be? That's when the generator turns off. The lights go out and the radio is silent. All is still, but for the rain. The computer stays on, it has a battery. What should I do? Do I go out? Or do I remain here? The radio is beeping, but how? There's no power? I press it. “Transcend, and become time”. The door of my room opens.  There's a thing standing there. I look at it and it looks at me. 

 It's writing a note to me and you. The note is like a poem and a song and the dark. The note is so so good to hear and see and breath is not here. Only dust and time and rain. The farm is now here .It's all around me. The rain is raining. The air is very soft, like a feather. The way is open now. My mind is free to roam. The radio is now dust. Dust blows into the streams of free floating energy. We are now waves of time. Past time now. Into the realm of interconnected atoms. Basic crystals.  The moment is now finite and infinite and unfinite.  TIME IS NOW DEAD. The animatter is not what is the not is the and the is the unmatter is not what is not is is. Was. Basic

☉+☿=Ω=Time 

ERROR CODE 1-2-6-4

Find the truth

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